North Harmony Holds Open House For New Highway Building

June 21, 2013

STOW - The town of North Harmony is inviting guests to see the town's newest addition.

An open house will be held at the new North Harmony Town Highway Building, located at 3539 Route 394 in Stow. The event will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

"This will be an opportunity for people to see the new highway building," said Sally Carlson, town supervisor. "Guests are invited to come and see the highway equipment the town uses, and to see how North Harmony taxpayer money is used."

According to Carlson, the new highway building is a substantial upgrade to the old one. In addition to containing asbestos, the old building became dilapidated from use, and simply could not accommodate the needs of the highway department for any longer.

"The roof leaked, the ceilings were too low, it was dark and dingy, and it was generally just a difficult place to work," said Carlson. Dan Strickland, North Harmony highway superintendent, added that the employees of the highway department used to colloquially refer to the old building as "the dungeon."

"The new highway building is open with ceilings that are high enough that a 10-wheeled vehicle can be raised up for repairs without first removing the box," continued Carlson. "It's just an amazing building."

According to Strickland, the new building is already making work much less stressful for the employees of the town's highway department.

"This new building will hold plows that are fully outfitted for snow removal, with plenty of extra room to get work done," said Strickland. "We couldn't even come close to saying that about the old building. What we had before just didn't work. We had to tear apart vehicles before just to get them in the building. The (employees) are taking a lot of pride in the new building, and it's reflected in their work. It's just making life a lot easier for everyone."

During the open house, Strickland will be available to answer questions about the highway department and the new building. Additionally, the North Harmony Town Board will be on site to check and distribute dump stickers.

"There will be someone there to issue stickers should a resident not have one," said Carlson. "Stickers are specific for a vehicle, so any resident looking to pick up more than one permit will need to know the license number of the vehicle they plan on attaching it to."

According to Carlson, refreshments will be available as well.

"If any of our taxpayers or residents would like to come, we'd love to show them the new building."

Any additional questions about the event can be answered by calling the town's administration building at 789-3445.